Hometeam: Central's casting foils Naps' state title bid

Sunday

Mar 17, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Casey McLaughlin missed 10 weeks last season to a knee injury that hampered Central Catholic's tournament run. Last night, the healthy Stonehill College-bound senior standout poured in a game-high 27 points to lead the Raiders to a 53-48 victory over Holy Name at the DCU Center.

Last night, the healthy Stonehill College-bound senior standout poured in a game-high 27 points to lead the Raiders to a 53-48 victory over Holy Name at the DCU Center.

It's Central Catholic's second Division 1 state championship — the other coming in 2009, when it defeated Shepherd Hill, 67-62.

“Everyone just wanted this win so bad,” said the 6-foot McLaughlin, who tore cartilage in her knee last winter. “Everyone does everything for this team. There's no unselfishness. Everyone knows their roles. Everyone just stepped up. Everyone who came in just wanted to fight.”

McLaughlin was nearly unstoppable, scoring the bulk of her points in the paint.

“She's a great player all around,” said Holy Name junior guard Aryauna Perez, who scored 10 of her team-high 12 points in the first half. “She played especially great tonight.”

“She was definitely an asset to that team,” junior guard Ama Biney said. “I think she was their anchor there. We tried to stop her as much as we could.”

Holy Name (23-3), which had its 18-game winning streak snapped and was in its first state championship, trailed, 31-22, at halftime, but never let the Raiders (22-5) pull away.

The Naps, who missed eight free throws, were plagued by uncharacteristic turnovers and mental miscues.

“We just came out very slow — very sluggish,” said 6-2 junior center Brianna Frias, whose team fell behind by as many as 14 points in the second period following a frustrating first eight minutes. “They're a fast team. They're a great team. They're a team you can't get behind. We just didn't really play our game as well as we should have. We didn't play at our speed.”

“I feel like turnovers were a big factor in this game,” Perez said. “We usually don't have this many turnovers.”

“We started out poorly, and then we were in the hole the whole way,” Finneron said. “It was tough. McLaughlin and (Courtney) Walsh (13 points) are good. Every time we were going to make a run, they would come through.”

The Naps came out sharp to start the second half, cutting its deficit to 31-26 just over a minute into the third quarter, on a turnaround jumper by senior Malissa Saad (8 points) and a putback by Frias (6 points).

After a McLaughlin basket, Frias showed why she'll be playing at Division 1 Providence College in two years, going up strong and scoring despite being triple-teamed to make it 33-28 with 6:27 left in the third period.

McLaughlin, however, answered again with another easy field goal, followed by a free throw by Amanda Williams (10 points) to boost Central Catholic's lead to 36-28 with 4:24 remaining in the third.

The Raiders led, 40-32, but a basket by Biney (11 points) and two free throws by Saad sliced it to 40-36 with 51.8 seconds left in the quarter. McLaughlin squelched the momentum, sneaking in for a putback to put Central Catholic on top, 42-36, heading into the fourth.

“She stopped us from making a run,” Frias said.

The Raiders held an eight-point lead nearly three minutes into the final period, but sophomore Gabrielle Gueunther (11 points) buried a 3 from the top of the key to cut it to 46-41 with 5:06 remaining.

McLaughlin answered to make it 48-41, but Biney knocked down two of three free throws after being fouled attempting a 3, shaving it to 48-43 with 2:57 left.

Another McLaughlin basket and two free throws by Darion Summers increased Central Catholic's advantage to 52-43 with 50.9 seconds remaining.

The Raiders were up, 53-45, but Guenther drilled a 3 with four seconds to go to account for the final score. Holy Name fought hard to the final buzzer.

“That's the way they approach the game,” Finneron said. “That's the way they approach practice. They have a lot of fun, but they work like crazy.”

“We're definitely proud of ourselves,” Biney said. “It's sad to lose in the state finals, but we did a lot of things we're proud of. There's nothing to hang our heads about. There definitely should be more smiles than tears. We came up short in the end, but we left it all out there in the end.”

“There weren't a lot of tears because we all had a phenomenal season,” Perez said. “It wasn't really much of a difference at the end. It was about who wanted it more. They played great throughout the whole game, and that helped them.”